


The Lost Padawan

by TheRealKLT



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-02
Updated: 2016-03-02
Packaged: 2018-05-24 06:17:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6144259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRealKLT/pseuds/TheRealKLT
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A few years after the events of Revenge of the Sith, Ahsoka Tano is a smuggler aboard The Stellar Envoy, a freighter ferrying fugitives of the Empire to planets with Republic sympathizers. When they receive a distress beacon from an old Jedi temple, Ahsoka and her shipmate, Gwen, find themselves directly in the path of Vader’s Fist.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

STAR WARS

The Lost Padawan

Part 1

A time of darkness has fallen across the galaxy. The power of the once thriving Republic has been usurped by Chancellor Palpatine, now the Emperor of the first Galactic Empire and the Dark Lord of the Sith, who rules the galaxy at the barrel of a blaster.

Having already crippled the Jedi Order by way of Order 66 and the subsequent assault on the Jedi Temple, Darth Vader continues to hunt down and exterminate rogue Jedi - and other enemies to the Empire - with his unit of elite Stormtroopers, the 501st.

Republic friends lie scattered across the galaxy, providing succor to fugitives of the Empire. The locations of these shelters are known only to the most trustworthy of allies, granting passage to few.

One such ally travels to the planet Ilum in _The Stellar Envoy_ , a freighter used to smuggle survivors of the Great Jedi Purge under the Empire's nose. There, the crew has picked up a familiar distress beacon....

*~*~*

Planet Ilum hung suspended in the distance, first a blue speck, then a frosted marble as they drew closer. _The Stellar Envoy_ approached slowly, looping around the entire planet once to be sure there wasn’t any Imperial cruisers lying in wait on the other side to spring a trap. Gwen had insisted on it, despite the urgency of the distress beacon; it was her ship – well, it was now – and more importantly, it was their hides if they were caught. Coded message or not, a beacon originating from a planetary surface on the outer rim was suspicious, and dangerous at best – they weren’t the only ones who would come calling eventually.

Gwen set the Envoy’s Nav-Control to autopilot, and stood up from the command chair to stretch. They’d been clear across the galaxy in the Dagobah system when the signal had come through on the old Republic channels; weak, but traceable. That, too, was suspicious – no signal was that long range. Gwen had said as much when they received it, but Ahsoka had simply gazed out over Dagobah’s forested sphere through the Envoy’s viewfinder. “The Force is strong here...” she’d said. Ahsoka had entered the coordinates herself, then. That had been two days ago, and they’d nearly flown nonstop since, jumping in and out of hyperdrive. You couldn’t use hyperdrive for much more than short bursts these days, Gwen begrudged. There was no way of knowing if a TIE-Fighter was waiting for you on the other side. They’d travelled along the Outer Rim, following a safe, but inconvenient course of known friendlies. Friendlier than an Imperial Armada, at least. After clocking all those hours, Gwen needed a nap, a back massage, and a tall glass of Jet Juice, not necessarily in that order.

There was a holocron playing in the galley when Gwen entered, projected onto the Dejarik table. Gwen was familiar with it; she’d seen bits of pieces before, but never the whole thing. She got the impression that she wasn’t supposed to, that it was private. Not just because Ahsoka would terminate the message whenever she walked in, but from the glassy look in her eyes, the faraway stare, as though she needed to be alone, but couldn’t quite, so she made it so in her mind. It was like she floated away into some void, but she was sitting right there in the galley, emotionless. She had that look then, too. The cloaked man with the beard finished the last of his message, “… I’m very sorry, Ahsoka.” Then the holocron shimmered and began again: “Ahsoka, I’m afraid that I have regrettable tidings. It’s about Anakin—“ That was when Ahsoka took notice of Gwen in the doorway, and she thusly ended the holocron with a dismissive wave of her hand toward Ray-1, the droid projecting it.

“Thank goodness,” Ray-1 said, hovering in the air, his blue ocular lens revolving on Gwen. “She was making me play her that dreadful message again. I thought you’d never interrupt her.”

Gwen ignored him, as was her usual strategy. “We’re very nearly there,” she said, gesturing back to the cockpit with her thumb. “Wanna help me take her in, or what?”

“I suppose…” Ahsoka stood up, straightening her tunic, pulling it taut beneath her belt. “If you aren’t… capable of landing us yourself,” she said, very somberly. Ahsoka stepped forward, face to face. Gwen felt herself bristle. She was readying a comeback when Ahsoka’s grin broke like dawn. “First one to the pilot’s chair is Bantha fodder!” She shoved past Gwen, sprinting down the corridor.

“Hey!” Gwen laughed. “Cheater!” She gave chase, catching up to her in the cockpit where there were giggles and a brief scuffle, each girl yanking and yoking each other for position. With one final mush, Ahsoka threw her whole body into the pilot’s chair, tossing her head back to laugh victoriously.

Gwen huffed. “Fine, I’ll be the co-pilot.” She pouted. “This is my ship, y’know!”

“You _stole_ it!”

“Yeah, fair and square! So!?”

“Please take piloting seriously,” Ray-1 said, floating into the cockpit. “I don’t wish to die.”

The curve of the Envoy’s bow pushed through Ilun’s mesosphere, briefly engulfing the viewport in orange as the flames rippled off their hull. Soon they pierced the stratosphere, where the friction faded away, replaced by a silvery calm. Below them, dark clouds rolled and swelled like a Kamino sea. The Envoy’s atmosphere monitor was nothing but jagged, erratic lines. This isn’t ideal at all. “Take us in nice and gently, Ahsoka,” Gwen said, her fingers already wavering over the stabilizer console. Ahsoka gnashed her teeth and plunged them through the troposphere into the raging storm.

Swirling white, hailing, bludgeoning _The Stellar Envoy_ ’s hull. The ship rattled, and Gwen struggled to steady them, but the stabilizers were all over the board, overwhelmed by the pressure. There was a near constant clattering as everything in the cargo bay toppled and slid into the walls, doing who knows what kind of damage. One of the Envoy’s alarms blared, and a red light was flashing over their heads, probably warning them that, yes, they might crash imminently. _I know, I know!_

“Hold on!”

The blizzard was thick, and frost was spreading across the viewport, but they could still see the tail of a Corellian shuttle sticking out from a bluff of snow. “Look, over there!” Ahsoka had someone known exactly where to take them. More secrets… Gwen found herself wounded, but now wasn’t the time for an interrogation. “It looks like they barely managed to put her down,” she said, and knew it was true. The shuttle teetered on the edge of a plateau, its nose buried in the side of a small mountain.

“Take the helm,” Ahsoka said, suddenly abandoning the pilot’s chair. Gwen practically had to jump into the seat to keep the Envoy from veering into a nearby glacier. Even as fast as she had, Ahsoka was already strapping a blaster to her hip, rummaging through the equipment chest for goggles.

“What are you doing, Ahsoka!?”

Tundra-grade clothing came out of the chest next. They’d keep you warm on Hoth, but this? Gwen wasn’t so sure. It looked like certain death out there. “We’ll never be able to land in this,” she said, wrapping herself in a thermal coat and tucking her tails underneath a furry hood. “I need you to take the Envoy up above the storm where you’ll be safe and wait for my signal.”

Ray-1 asked, “Do you require that I go down first to scan for lifeforms, Master Tano?”

“That won’t be necessary, Ray.”

“Good,” he said, floating away.

Gwen had brought the Envoy approximately fifty meters above the surface – it was hard to get an exact measurement in those conditions – and engaged the bottom thrusters to hold position, but they were taking a beating from the storm and it wouldn’t hold for long. Now free from the helm, she turned to Ahsoka, all but pleading with her, “Let me come with you.” Her tone was hard.

“You can’t,” Ahsoka replies. She pressed the Envoy’s hatch release, lowering the ramp and letting in the winds. Behind her was nothing but whirling white, hueing Ahsoka in sparkling flakes.

There was no room for argument in her expression. Her eyes were darkened from exhaustion, and Gwen suddenly felt guilty for feeling like she was tired herself. Sometimes it was easy to forget everything Ahsoka had been through in the past year; Ahsoka would never talk to her about any of it, but Gwen had heard her tossing and turning through the night, heard the whimpers of nightmares and the tears that came afterward. If there was anyone more hardheaded than Gwen herself was, it was Ahsoka. Her shoulder’s slumped. “Be careful,” was all she said, and she blew Ahsoka a kiss.

Ahsoka grinned back at her. “Careful is my middle nam-“ she made to catch the kiss out of the air just as the Envoy was rocked by the storm, and Ahsoka slipped on the ramp, her arms flailing fruitlessly for something to grab hold of, and she tumbled comically out of the Envoy’s hatch.

“Yep, Ahsoka ‘Careful’ Tano, alright,” Gwen muttered.

“I would roll my eyes if I had more than one,” Ray-1 said.

*~*~*

Ahsoka somersaulted as she fell, landing on her feet in the snow, crouched. Ilum’s moonlight refracted in the blizzard, and she had to shield her from the sudden brightness. _The Stellar Envoy_ ’s ramp recalled, and a moment later its thrusters rotated and propelled it away with a blur of blue flame.

Static in her ear. “Hurry back,” Gwen said through their comm-link. 

“Believe me, I don’t intend to settle down here.”

The cliff face was only a few hundred feet away, but it was slow-going. Her footing wasn’t solid, and she was forced to trudge forward against the wind, clutching her hood to keep it from flying off her head and tails. When she looked up, she could see the downed shuttle’s stern hanging off the outcrop ledge, gently rocking. Ahsoka heard the creaking over the howling storm. Now I just have to climb, she thought, cheerful despite the circumstances. The shuttle was about a mile up. _No problem._

If her trek there had been sluggish, her progress up the cliff was painfully slow. Holds were few and far between, and the surface was slick with ice and crumbling sleet. Even wearing her goggles, it was difficult to see through the frozen slurry. Most of her ascension was done by blindly groping the cliff face for something to grip, and trying to remember where it had been to boost her lower body off of with her feet as she passed. More than once a foothold cracked under her weight, and more than once she slid down, struggling to slow her decline. If she climbed ten feet, she’d fall six. Her arms ached.

Ahsoka was three-quarters of the way up when the wind began to whip, slamming into her like a fist, almost knocking her off the wall as it blew by. It left icy fingerprints on her skin, even under her fur, and she started trembling uncontrollably. That’s when she heard the creaking again, like a rickety rocking chair just above. Ahsoka looked up in time to dodge the snow falling from just over her head.

Not good, Ahsoka thought, picking up her pace. Her hands were frantically searching for something to grip, yanking herself higher and higher. Another gust caught her in mid-climb and she slipped, feet skidding off the ice and then dangling. This time the shuttle didn’t creak, it screeched. Another load of snow fell, some smacking her in the face, wet and cold. She shook it off her, swinging her body back up and grabbing the wall again. Her feet pedaled until finally sinking into a hold. The screeching hadn’t stopped; it resounded over the wind, muffling her heavy breathing. Ahsoka knew she was listening to the shuttle’s underbelly grind as gravity seized it.

_Nope, nope, nope…_ She felt the wind prickling her skin again, threatening to blow. She accounted for it in her mental calculations. It wailed. The shuttle fell, a boulder of ice and snow breaking off with it as the stern pulled it down, spinning. Ahsoka pushed off the wall and she leaped.

Unknowable tons of steel and rock and snow whooshed past her in midair. Ahsoka’s hands extended, arms outstretched. Time seemed to slow down. Then her fingers found the lip of the plateau and held her, the rest of her body slamming into the side of the wall. The shuttle crashed into the surface below, an avalanche chasing behind it, like a waterfall of clumpy debris. Ahsoka pulled herself up with some effort. She stooped and paused to catch her breath at the top. When she looked down, she couldn’t see the shuttle anymore – it was lost in an endless palette of bleary white.

Gwen’s voice in her ear: “ _Ahsoka, are you alright? Ray detected a disturbance._ ”

“I’m fine,” Ahsoka said, dusting off the snow. “I’m having the time of my life.”

From there she could see the entrance to the Jedi Temple, nestled into the mountain’s bosom, hidden from the air. Massive stone pillars made an archway into the main chamber, lit by the Ilun moons through the storm like a fishbowl. Ahsoka had, of course, been there before – twice, once as a padawan herself, and again as a mentor to others. If Jedi were on Ilum, Ahsoka knew this is where they would take refuge. A force user had already opened the gates, that much was clear, but a Jedi? She couldn’t be sure of that. For all she knew, Sith waited for her inside. Ahsoka entered anyway.

Now out of the hail of the storm, Ahsoka pushed her goggles up to her forehead to take in the surrounding with her bare eyes. It was warmer inside, but not much. Her breath was steam. The temple’s interior chamber was tall and rounded, lit a soft white against the blue of the frosted rock. Two statues of Jedi loomed above her, watching over the temple and wielding stone lightsabers.

At the temple’s crown stood the entrance to the Crystal Caves, but it was blocked off by a layer of ice, like a blast-door. There was a crystal near the ceiling to focus sunlight and melt open the corridor, but Ahsoka didn’t have time to wait seventeen days for the sun to rise. Let’s do this the fast way. Ahsoka drew her blaster, aiming at the base of the impasse, and squeezed the trigger. There was a red flash and a high-pitched report. Ahsoka squeezed twice more, widening the gap that her blaster burned open. She was peeking into the caves beyond when she first heard the screams.

Ahsoka whirled around. It was dimmer in the chamber than she remembered just moments before. Darkness seemed to spread like ink across the walls, smothering the moonlight. Another scream, pained beyond language, savage, like something caught in a trap. Ahsoka took a few steps back down the stairs into the center of the chamber. Her breathing was no longer simply steam; it was acrid smoke, hanging in the air as smog. The screaming had come closer, trailed by a wet, dragging noise.

“ _Ahsoka…_ ” the voice was familiar. Her heart pounded, her lungs seized. From the temple’s gloom emerged first a hand, flesh peeling, fingertips only bone. It clawed at the floor, pulling the rest of it forward. A head appeared next, hairless, inflamed, almost unrecognizable… almost.

“ _AHSOKA…!_ ”

“Master…” Ahsoka’s voice broke. Her blaster fell out of her hands, clattering. She dropped to her knees before his ruined body, reaching out uselessly, pleadingly. “Master… Master, I’m so sorry.”

His eyes were sunken, ringed with gold, like an animal’s.

They weren’t human. Not anymore.

“ _I hate you,_ ” he snarled. His body ignited into flames, cutting the darkness, casting flickering shadows on the walls around them, shadows that told tales. In them, Ahsoka saw the fall of the Jedi Order. She watched as Plo Koon’s fighter fell from the sky, and as Stass Allie and Aayla Secura were assassinated by their troopers. She watched Ki-Adi-Mundi fight valiantly, but in the end he was shot dead. Ahsoka saw Order 66 play out like shadow puppets in the light of her dying master. All the while, she felt the heat on her face, so hot she feared it would burn her, too. The smell of roasting tauntaun found her nostrils, and she nearly retched right there. His screams were deafening. “ _I HATE YOU!_ ”

Someone grabbed her shoulder, shattering the vision. “Ahsoka,” they said, softly, yet still she flinched. A young Tholothian stood beside her, her face gaunt with fatigue, lined with worry. Ahsoka knew her – Katooni. Others looked on behind them. A human boy stood on the steps that lead to the caves. His name was Petro. Four more peered out from the maw that Ahsoka had shot into the ice door. Zaat, Ganodi, Byph, and Gungi – Gungi whined shyly at her in Wookie. Younglings, all… No, two years older than when she’d last seem them at the Jedi Academy. Young padawan now, matured by loss.

“It’s going to be alright,” Katooni said, wiping away the wetness on Ahsoka’s cheeks. Ahsoka hadn’t realized that she had been crying. The others inched nearer, their trepidation fading with time. Katooni hugged her then, her tiny arms squeezing Ahsoka tight. Petro rushed over next, joining in, and the others followed suit. “It’s going to be okay,” Katooni repeated, “you’re safe now, Ahsoka.”

It occurred to Ahsoka that she should have been telling _them_ that; she should have been assuring them of their wellbeing now that she was there, not the other way around. But it would be hours before the storm let up and Ahsoka could hail the Envoy, and an even longer journey still after that. They’d have to protect each other. “Thank you,” was all she said.

*^*^*

It stank like bantha fodder on the ship.

It had taken two days for the storm on Illum to let up enough for Gwen to break atmosphere and pick up Ahsoka and the younglings, and even then _The Stellar Envoy_ had been battered by hail the size of wombats. By the time they'd all managed to board and disembark, secondary support systems had been compromised. Gwen had managed to repair the rehydrator, so they did have drinking water recyced from the atmosphere, but the filtration system was still down, which meant they couldn't process their waste water. Their simply wasn't enough moisture in the atmosphere to fulfill their every need. What _that_ meant is no one had showered in a blasted week.

The younglings were already ripe when they'd boarded, and Ahsoka hadn't exactly been a fresh meadow herself, after spending two days in a cave with them. Still, they were all lucky they hadn't lost something more pertinent, like air or gravity, so Gwen couldn't complain too much; she complaned just the right amount, she thought. "Ahsoka, please, I'm begging you," Gwen said, pressing her forearm to her nose, "stand down wind or something."

"What wind? There's no wind, we're on a space freighter."

"Then go stand in the airlock," Gwen said. "I promise not to eject you."

They were in the cockpit of _The Stellar Envoy_ , Gwen sitting in the pilot's seat, Ahsoka standing at the navigation console. Down the hall, in the galley, they heard the younglings playing. From the sound of it, Hide and Seek with Ray-1 again. Gwen knew, because she heard his enthusiastic shouting. "I have ascertained your location, infant wookie," he said, his voice echoing down the hall. "According to my records, your performance has been poorest of all." Gwen heard Gungi growl, and something clanged. "Cease hurling projectiles," Ray-1 said. "It isn't polite to be a sore loser."

"You couldn't eject me," Ahsoka said. "If you did, there'd be no one to navigate this hunk-of-junk for you, would there?" The Envoy's auto-navigation systems had taken a hit during the storm, too. If they wanted to use hyperdrive, which they most certainly did, someone had to calculate their trajectory manually, while someone else had to continue piloting. Not the end of the galaxy, but definitely a lot of long hours in close quarters with a pair of rancor armpits.

"First of all, it isn't a hunk-of-junk, you're a hunk-of-junk," Gwen said, her head bobbing to emphasize every syllable. "Second of all, we're almost there. One more jump and you can sit your pretty tails in the airlock, and I can bring this magnificent space bird down and get some fresh air, for once."

Ahsoka stuck her tongue out at Gwen, and then she took down the corded micorphone to address the entire ship. "Attention," she said, her voice amplified in every room, "this is your captain speaking. We'll be commencing our last hyperdrive of the voyage, so please buckle yourselves in. The sweet-smelling Gwendolyn will be setting this magnificent hunk-of-junk down planet-side within the hour."

They heard the younglings' celebratory whooping in the galley. When the console read that they had all buckled in, Ahsoka pressed the ignition button on the hyperdrive, smiling slyly. "I'm the captain," Gwen muttered under her breath, just as the starry space outside _The Stellar Envoy_ 's viewfinder began to spin, and then the ship lurched, propelling them into the tunnel of light.

*^*^*

The young bounty hunter's spacecraft maneuvered through the dense asteroid field with ease. It was a Firespray-31 patrol and attack craft, heavily customized. It had been his father's, but he'd inherited it, as was his right. He'd even done some of the modifications himself, since. The engines, though, that was all his father; dual Kuat drive engines and power generators that allowed the ship to slip through obstacles like a shadow, yet still power into sublght speed to match a starfighter.

His father had been brilliant, truly one of a kind.

It had been months since the bounty hunter had first began honing in on his quarry, tipped off in a Coruscant rat. He'd been on their tail since; always a few steps behind, but making ground. Normally that would be too long between jobs, the fruits didn't justify the labor, but this was an exception. This new galactic empire was offering substantial credits for anyone with solid information on Republic refugees, information that resulted in their death or capture. Even more credits for that of Jedi. The bounty hunter sneered. Jedi... He didn't fear cowardly Jedi. Everyone was killable, Jedi Knight or not; you simply pressed a blaster to their heads and... click.

They all had it coming, the boy figured, for what they'd done to... for what they'd done, is all.

A few weeks earlier he picked up their ion trail near Dagobah and followed it for a few lightyears before it petered out. Luckily, the ship recognized a distress beacon in the Ilun system on an old Republic channel, weak but clear. The bounty hunter was there in less than an hour, but when his ship came out of hyperdrive he was too late. After a sweep for life signs on the planet's surface, he was sure they were already gone. Pity. Still, a fresher trail to track wasn't nothing. They seemed to be skirting Imperial space, staying just inside the Outer Rim. If he cut through the asteroid fields, he might be able to make better time...

His shortcut had paid off. The new ion trail was strong on the other side, but it ended abruptly. They must have taken their ship into hyperspace again. This might have frustrated the boy, sent him on a red-faced tantrum about the cockpit, as it had many occasions before, but not now. This time hey were travelling too close to the rim, their flight trajectory too clear. He knew the burst distance they'd used hyperdrive in the past, and there was one planet in that range. Just one.

The boy was smart, yes, he'd be like his father someday, maybe just as brilliant.

He engaged the ship's deep-space comm and waited for the call to be received. In a moment, it was. The voice that answered reminded the bounty hunter of the rumble of distant thunder on his homeplanet, Kamino. He knew it unmistakably. "This had better be worthy of my time, boy."

"Oh, it is," the bounty hunter said, masking his anxiety with boyish bravado. Still, there was a tremor in his hands. "I've tracked the smugglers outside the chomnell sector. They seem to be heading into the Naboo system. They might've picked up some Republic passengers on Ilum, too."

"Naboo..." The boy heard him breathing. It sounded like the hydraulic vents on the docking bay of a space station. "Continue tracking their ship. Confirm their arrival on the planet, and then await my fleet."

"Wait!? I don't need to wait. I can captu--"

"Do as you're told, boy!" Around him, the spacecraft began to rattle violently. Not enough to throw it off course, but enough to topple loose items and dislodge cargo. Even his chair vibrated, and the bounty hunter had the unsettling feeling that at any moment the hull would shred open like a ration can, and some unseen force would eject him, still strapped into his seat, into the vacuum of space.

The boy gulped. "Yes, my lord."

*^*^*

_The Stellar Envoy_ coasted over the flowering prairies of Naboo's countryside, crossing over into the crisp, reflective waters that lay between it and the city of Theed. Its underbelly skimmed the blue surface only briefly - a bit of a show for the younglings, who oohed and ahhed at the iridescent fish that leapt all around them - before Gwen pulled the ship up by its nose, hurtling the massive walls that protected the capital from the elements, and enemies long since appeased. At once, there was an explosion of activity and color, like waking from one dream into another. "Stellar Envoy," a voice said over their comms, "this is Theed sky control. You're clear for landing at the palace, bay two." Gwen rogered up, and the voice added: "Good to have you back, ladies."

Gwen rounded the palace and brought _The Stellar Envoy_ in for a vertical landing. Its thrusters flared sky-blue, rotating themselves downward, allowing the ship to slowly sink onto its metallic legs. The Envoy clanked to a stop, exhaling the last of its pressure as the engines shut down. The loading bay opened a moment later, allowing the crew to deboard. Ahsoka was first, marching herself down the ramp to meet the welcoming party. Gwen herded the younglings after her. Ray-1 floated down last, muttering to himself. "This humidity is not optimal for my motivators," he said to no one in particular.

Captain Palpatis waited for them on the landing strip, his arms outstretched. He was flanked by three of his Royal Guard, and a few of the queen's handmaidens. He embraced Ahsoka when she met him halfway. "It's good to see you, Ahsoka," he said. His nose scrunched, and he politely parted from their hug. "Long journey?"

Gwen, finally catching up to them, answered for her. "Our filtration system busted a couple of lightyears back," she said. "None of us have had anything but a sonic cleaning in weeks."

"I'll have our mechanics look at it," Captain Palpatis said. Then, noticing the younglings, he bent his knees to level with them and asked, "And who might these fine, upstanding younglings be?"

Ahsoka had positioned herself behind the younglings, standing in a neat row. She had given them a briefing on how to act when they reached the royal palace, and she was delighted to see them trying to follow her instructions. It was even cuter when they fell short of perfection, though. Byph twisted his long, Ithorian neck to peer at the balloons in the city's distance, nearly knocking Petro over in the process. Petro teetered and mushed Byph away. Zatt lightly cuffed him to refocus his attention. Ahsoka had to keep herself from giggling.

Ahsoka tapped each of them on the head as she said their names, "This is Katooni, Gungi , Petro, Byph, Zatt, and Ganodi. Each of them are talented Jedi padawans." They all puffed with pride.

"Jedi, you say? Well, they should enjoy meeting the others who are taking refuge here." He beckoned the handmaidens with a wave. "See to them. Have them bathed and dressed, then bring them to their fellow Jedi." The handmaidens lead them down the strip in a swarm of flowing cloth and doting hands. The younglings, not used to the attention, were easily whisked away. 

“Shall I accompany the human larvae?” Ray-1 said. “To monitor their behavior, of course.”

“Of _course_ ,” Gwen mocked. She smiled and nodded. “Go ahead, Ray.”

They watched him disappear into the palace, and then Captain Palpatis turned back to Ahsoka and Gwen. "You might want to wash up before your audience with Her Majesty, as well," he said with a laugh. "We've taken the liberty of having rooms prepped for you. They're in the North Wing. One of my guards will show you the way."

"Thank you, Captain," Ahsoka said.

"It is an honor," he said, bowing.

They were led through the rounded corridors of the royal palace by the armored guard, who said as little with his body language as he did his tongue. Ahsoka had been there many times before, but she still found herself admiring the simplistic beauty of the palace's inner architecture; the high vaulted ceiling, the polished marble columns, the open balconies and natural light - it reminded her more of a temple than a palace, and she felt a pang of homesickness. Foolish, she told herself. There's no sense weeping over ash and bone. Still... she let her eyes lose focus and walked the rest of the mechanically, with no joy.

Their rooms were next door to each other's. "I will wait," the guard said. He stood at attention with his back against the curve of the wall between the two doors and did just that. Gwen gave Ahsoka a face that seemed to ask, _Is this guy serious?_ but Ahsoka only shrugged. The royal guard no longer surprised her. On one of their first smuggling runs to Naboo, she and Gwen had spent the better part of half an hour mimicking opera at the top of their lungs, but the guard on duty then had simply blinked at them and asked, "Will that be all?" Now she just accepted it.

They went into their respective rooms and shut their doors. Ahsoka took in her surroundings; plush red carpet, canopy bed, even real wood furniture. A fresh tunic and pants had been laid out for her on the feather comforter. "Swanky," she said aloud to herself. It felt strange, having no one to talk to. Ahsoka tapped on the commlink in her ear after a moment of consideration. "Gwen, is your room as swanky as mine is?" _Ahsoka, I'm trying to get ready._ "Did they leave you clothes? They left me clothes." _Yes, can you leave me alone so I can wear them?_ "Okay, hurry up, I miss you." _Tano, you just saw me!_ "Irrelevant argument. I'll meet you outside in ten minutes."

*^*^*

Queen Apailana's audience chamber was a half-sphere of cool, gray stone at the north most wing of the palace. Golden sunlight streamed in through open terraces, revealing glimpses of Naboo's powder blue skies, as was typical for Theed, but here a perimeter of simple wooden benches lined the outer columns. Ahsoka imagined what it might look like if they had been full; dark silhouettes glaring against a backdrop too bright to perceive without squinting, while Her Majesty looked down at you somberly from a tall throne on a raised dais. It was a chamber intended to cause anxiety. Ahsoka felt a twinge of it in her own chest.

They had entered side by side and taken a knee at the chamber's center, a spot marked by a single dark stone. It was only a moment before Her Majesty spoke--"Rise, allies."--and they were able to stand again. Queen Apailana sat on her throne, her painted expression much as Ahsoka had expected it to be. A line of her royal guard stood at her feet, while only Captain Palpatis shared the dais. "It pleases me to see you've returned safely," she said, in a flat tone that would leave you to believe otherwise. "And with more friends to the Republic, no less."

"We are glad to be back as well, Your Majesty," Ahsoka said, with a slight curtsy that didn't escape Gwen's eye, which she then rolled. "The journey here from the Ilun system was a long one, but definitely worth it. Gwen and I followed a Republic distress signal to caves that had once belonged to the Jedi. Five young padawans had crash landed, and taken refuge from a blizzard there." Ahsoka smiled. "They're very gifted, and very sweet."

"Padawans..." Queen Apailana's eyes flashed toward Captain Palpatis. He, almost by instinct, angled himself toward her. "Is this so, Captain? Have our ranks been blessed with a litter of young apprentices?"

"It is true," he said. "Five, little more than younglings. I am not as versed as Madam Tano in matters of their trade, but they appear healthy--strong."

Ahsoka nodded, speaking quickly. "With their potential, and the Knights already here, we could the makings of a new Jedi Academy here on Naboo." Her heart was beating hard, pumping warmth to her cheeks. "In just a few years, maybe a decade, we could begin to rebuild--"

"A decade?" Queen Apailana's lip curled. "We do not have a decade to make Jedi of those who can be soldiers tomorrow."

Ahsoka's pulse slowed. "I... don't understand, Your Majesty."

Captain Palpatis answered. "Queen Apailana has refused the Imperial ambassadors and their requests--"

"Demands."

"Yes, Your Highness, I stand corrected. Their denands that Naboo yield under the Emperor's galactic rule."

Ahsoka felt sick. "Forgive me, Your Majesty, but that's madness. The Empire will never allow you to exist as a sovereign planet. They'll force you into military action, and--"

"Indeed, that is the plan," Queen Apailana said. "When the Empire wages unsanctioned war, the galaxy will see the Emperor for what he truly is, and will come to the aid of the Republic."

"Is that before or after you're crushed under the Empire's heel?" Gwen bristled. "I know I'm just a lowly smuggler, but we call that a suicide mission where I come from."

"You mentioned soldiers..." Ahsoka eyes were ovals, peering up with a kind of hope that bordered on denial. "Is that what you've been making of the refugees we've brought to this planet? The people we brought here to escape battle?"

"They all have some hand or another in the war effort, yes," Captain Palpatis said.

"Even..." The realization cut through Gwen like a vibroblade. She glared up at the dais, her fists balled. "But they're just children! Little more than younglings!"

Queen Apailana's face never even twitched a passing emotion. "No rebellion has ever been waged without the taint of sacrifice."

Ahsoka slumped. "You're monsters..."

"You're swamp scum!" Gwen spit.

Captain Palpatis banged his staff on the dais. It echoed hollow in the chamber. "Enough!" The Royal Guard below him responded by changing their stances in dramatic unison, opening their feet and chambering their own staffs in their armpits. "You have been friends to Theed, but I cannot abide treason of tongue. If you will not stay it, I'll have you seized, friends or no."

Queen Apailana raised her hand, silencing her people. "Stand down, Captain." Palpatis brought himself back to attention, as did the rest of her guard. "Perhaps it is simply too much to process at once. Let us allow our friends the opportunity to sleep on what has been said here. Should their minds not change, we will grant them safe passage and absolve our arrangement. We are not the foul creatures they think us to be."

Gwen and Ahsoka backed out of the audience chamber slowly, but no so slowly that someone might change their mind. When the servants at the doors opened them, Ahsoka said, "You're making a mistake, Your Highness..."

Apailana pursed her lips. "We shall see."

*^*^*

The Star Destroyer waited just beyond the range of known long-distance scanners. The rest of its fleet hung suspended in space behind it; thirty other Destroyers, packed with Tie-Fighters and Bombers and, most importantly, shuttles. They'd brought with them four shuttles capable of cloaking against most early warning radar systems. They'd never been tested in battle, of course, but it didn't concern him. His plan would work or it wouldn't, either way the tiny planet didn't stand a chance.

He stood there, watching it in the distance; a green and blue speck, a stain on so much black. He found himself remembering a time when he had thought it to be beautiful, when fields of tall grass and sunflowers had been a bed for their first kiss, and apples had floated on the sound of giggles, rolling and tumbling as they dined on....

His fists balled and the room shook, if only for an instant. He was getting better, more practiced, at controlling his temper--focusing it, but their was still work to be done. He was almost glad when the the door rung, and the intercom system said, "Lord Vader, my apologies for this disturbance. The Bounty Hunter is here to see you. You said that, when he arrived, we should let you kno--"

"Enter," he said, his voice amplified inside his respiratory prosthesis.

The door slid open with a hydraulic sigh. Two Stormtroopers stood on the other side, flanking a brown-skinned boy in rough armor. "Come," he said, and the boy--with due hesitancy--stepped into the room, and allowed the door to close behind him. Vader looked him over. No older than sixteen, but strong, he could see. Resilient, but not yet tempered. Vader might have reached out to see if he was force sensitive, but he had no need. The boy looked too much like Vader's arc-troopers to be a coincidence, and at once the surname registered with his recollection. Of course... he thought.

Vader turned toward the window again, giving the boy his back. He didn't need to watch him, he sensed every pang of anxiety, every nervous twitch. "Has your reconnaissance confirmed the vessel's landing on the planet's surface?"

"Yes, my lord," he said. "But I still say I can capture them myself. It's just a droid and two women." The boy was braver than most, Vader admitted, but foolish, as is the substance of youth. "There's no need for an entire Imperial fleet to--"

"If you learn to follow instructions, you will have a lucrative future with me, boy. If you do not, you will have no future at all." Vader sensed the hairs on the back of the boy's neck go erect, the primal instinct to flee or fight rising up from the innermost layer of his brain. But, in the end, the boy made the correct decision, the only decision.

"Yes, my lord."

"Go," Vader said, and the boy did, walking briskly from the room and collecting his credits. Vader had told no lie. The Empire was vast, but where there was light there would always be shadow. Vader had need for pawns like the boy, capable of delving into the galaxy's cracks and doing what others could not. People such as that were essential in their disposability.

The door rung again, and this time when Vader bid the caller enter it was Captain Rex in his arc-trooper armor. He carried his headgear under his arm, and for a moment Vader was struck by how similar the boy had looked; Rex might've been his father, but - of course - they were of the same DNA, after all. "My men are ready for launch, Lord Vader," Rex said, saluting. "You need only give the word."

Vader said nothing for the exhalation of a few breaths, allowing them to resound in the near silence of the ship, overlain on the ever-constant engine hum of the Star Destroyer. The dark lenses of his helmet mirrored the planet, still only a blot of color in the blackness that was his eyes. There was something there, he felt, something familiar... It was no matter, only the skeletons of a former life, like smoke on a bygone horizon. "Wait until nightfall. Wait until they sleep," he said. "Let them dream their last dreams."

*^*^*

_It was the Jedi Temple, only it was not as she remembered it to be. The temple had always been well lit, even during night hours; fluorescent halls that lead into windowed rooms, where the Coruscant moon shone, fat and white above a endless cityscape. Here, though, there was only darkness beyond the windows, and the halls were dim and shadowy, as if lit by torchlight. And it was cold. Ahsoka could see her breath in the air, and somewhere in the back of her mind she remembered a frozen cavern, someplace far from there? The thought passed as quickly as it had come, just a whisper among whispers._

__

Ahsoka wandered the corridors, and after a short while she came to realize that the flickering dimness grew brighter as she walked, as if she were drawing nearer to its source. There was a sound, too; a crackling, not unlike comm static. It grew louder and louder as the light grew brighter and brighter, until finally she came upon a doorway with a flood of it all pouring through it. Ahsoka knew this room. There was nothing particularly telltale about that door or that hallway, no landmarks of any kind that she could discern, but she knew all the same. Hadn't she been there so many times before? Hadn't she herself attended Master Yoda's lectures there, all those years ago?

Ahsoka entered the Initiate Room, but there were no students. There was only a massive pyre. It burned, and spat, and popped, and all at once there was heat and stink. The body at its peak was wrapped in black robes and wreathed in smoke. Was it a Jedi funeral? Who had died? She tried to identify the face, but her eyes stung with ash, and the blaze was too wild to step any closer, but she had to know. Who was it underneath the soot, beneath the blackness?

"Ahsoka," someone said behind her. She turned, and where once there was a doorway and the hall beyond now existed only a wall of flame. There stood five younglings, untouched by the heat. Their skin was waxy and colorless, their lips cold and blue. “Where were you?”

Ahsoka jerked awake, alone in her bedroom. The sound of Naboo’s swamps drifted in the open window, all croaks and chirps and caws, audible over the stillness of Theed. Her sheets were soaked with sweat, and Ahsoka struggled to control her breathing. Every inch of her trembled. When the sickness in her stomach refused to fade, she stood up and padded barefoot to the adjoining door between rooms, opening it as quietly as she could and climbing into Gwen’s bed. Ahsoka curled up on the edge, her knees pressed up against her. Gwen, snoring like a Gungan, rolled over and wrapped a slack arm around her. Tomorrow we leave here, Ahsoka told herself, eyes open in the dark. And we take them with is. No matter what.

Sleep eventually came, and this time it was undisturbed.


	2. Chapter 2

            The first shuttle landed in the waters just outside Theed.

            It had powered down inside the troposphere, gone dark and dead-dropped. It was a Theta class --small, easy to miss in the darkness just before dawn. When the shuttle fell beneath the cover of the treeline on the horizon, it powered back up, lights on, wings extending, and the shielding fields stabilized it in the atmosphere. Its descent was slowed enough to come in for a gentle water-landing, hovering just high enough for the boarding ramp to kiss the surface.

            A small platoon of Stormtroopers crept from the shuttle's innards and slipped quietly into the rippling lake. Each wore an aquata breather attached to their helmet's usual filtering system. Their armor itself was lighter than regular infantry armor, to facilitate easier swimming, and colored mud brown and seaweed green to blend in on the planet"s surface. On Naboo, they were nearly invisible.

            All sixteen disappeared beneath the waters, and would not be seen again until they emerged on the far shore, rising up from the lake like so many Gungans. They scaled the moss on Theed's walls, their gloves equipped with sharpened fingertips to dig deep into the wet plant life. They made no sound, not even when the topmost trooper sunk his vibroblade into a nearby sentry's under-chin, piercing his brain. Perhaps a gargle of blood, but faint, if any. The trooper caught the Nabooian before he could fall and make a splash, and laid him down and out of sight.

            The others vaulted up onto the wall in a quick succession. Some had cache packs on their backs, which they then opened to reveal their dry contents. They assembled their blaster rifles from what was inside; attaching the butt to the stock, the scope to the chamber, and screwing the barrel into place on the forestock. Status LEDs went from red to green. They switched their power settings to kill.

            They split up into smaller teams of two -- one keeping watch with their blaster rifle at the ready, while the other dispatched sentries along the wall with a well-placed vibroblade, moving behind pillars and fauna for cover. When the high ground was clear, they descended into the Royal Plaza below, using grappling hooks to repel down into the shadowy nooks, in lieu of the bright openness of the stairs.

            There was a grid of fortifications near the palace gates; squat, wide enclosures where Theed Security kept various defense consoles. One, for example, operated the particle cannon turrets that protected the palace, but that one was a job for the incoming infantry. It was Fire Wave's duty to get them there first, landed safely. Instead, they made their way east of the palace gates, surrounding a lower quadrant of the defense grid, where the long-range scanning station was housed.

            Four troopers flanked every corner, back to back, rifles up. Five were in the back, two facing out on guard, three ready to climb. There were two troopers on either side of the main entrance, and one, dressed in a uniform that he’d stripped off a corpse, rapped on it hard with his bare knuckles.

            The peephole slid open, revealing two young, but suspicious eyes. "Yes?"

            "I gotta go," the disguised trooper said, doing a little dance. "Real bad."

            "No way," the technician’s eyes said. "Go use the one in the barracks."

            "C'mon, buddy," the trooper whined. "The barracks is way on the other side of the grid." At the rear of the control room, three of his fellow troopers were already climbing. There was a row of awning windows there to let in light. The troopers placed a small device on the pane of each, and the unbreakable glass began to glow orange and melt. "It'll be fast, it's only number one!"

            The eyes sighed. "Fine," they said, and started opening the door. "But you'd better not tell anyone else about this--" before the door had fully opened, the two troopers who had been flanking it had rushed in. They muscled the young man back, rifle barrels pressed to both his gut and temple. He glanced backward for help, but the other three troopers had already slithered through the windows like snakes, wasting no time in sticking their vibroblades between his fellow technician’s ribs.

            "Wouldn't dream of it," the disguised trooper said. "Now, deactivate the long range scanner."

            "Do it," another trooper said, "and maybe we'll let you walk out of here in one piece."

            "Okay, okay!" The young man did as he was told, trembling as he worked. When the consoles and monitors had gone dark, and the orbital scanner had completely powered down, the troopers executed him anyway. _No witnesses_ , Commander Rex had said. There would be none.

            The platoon leader radioed their mission's success to the shuttle they had come down to the planet's surface on, which relayed that same message to the Imperial Cruiser that had birthed it. It didn't take long for the dawning sky to speckle with clustered dwarf stars, growing larger as the Imperial Fleet broke lightspeed and appeared fully in the pink sky, distant but all-too-close. Cruisers loomed overhead so far out they appeared as jagged clouds, ghost-like in their soft formlessness.

            Infantry shuttles touched down in the Royal Plaza, still more landed in and outside Theed. Troopers marched down their respective ramps in tight company formation, tank artillery rolling down and out alongside them, turrets swiveling. Covert operations were over, and weapons went hot. Theed woke to the whistle of blasters, and the pop of sparks that came with them. The Imperial army exchanged fire with the particle cannon turrets defending the palace, their rounds as booming thunder. Naboo security took to their speeder tanks, but their light armor did nothing against the computer-guided missile launchers equipped on the Imperial TX fighter tanks. The AAC's raced along, chased by a smoking comet, and then they went up in a blaze.

            " _Surround the palace_ ," Commander Rex said into their commlinks. His face appeared to each of them in the corner of their vision, grimacing with the exertion of battle. His voice resounded inside their helmets as though he were standing right beside each of them, rather than himself fighting, somewhere in the front lines. " _Don't let the queen escape!_ "

            Imperial forces pressed forward, using their artillery to cleave a hole through Naboo's defenses. A battalion marched behind each TX, picking off Theed's security with a flash of red light and a series of shrill screams. Meanwhile, the fighter tanks positioned themselves in range to fire on the turret control console. When a particle cannon destroyed a tank, another would roll forward through the smoke and debris, continuing suppressive fire. Each shot only rocked the console's foundation, the energy rippling useless across plasma shields, but the constant barrage drew the attention of the turrets and allowed a handful of Stormtroopers the time needed to scale the grid, pierce the shields, and saturate the console with grenades. They bounced harmlessly, rolled, came to a stop, and - _BOOM!_ \- there was no more defensive turret fire.

            Without it, the palace gates opened up to them almost as easily as petals unfurling on a flower. The 501st blasted the heavy, wooden doors off their hinges with sticky explosives. Through the smoke, the red of their blasters crisscrossed the blue of the Royal Guard's from the interior courtyard. Bodies began to fall, and screams rose in throats behind the palace walls.

*^^*

            Something boomed in the distance, and in her half-sleep Gwen thought it to just be thunder. On her homeworld, many dawns were broken with rain, and she almost paid it no mind and fell back to sleep, but then another boom came from somewhere closer, and she heard shouting. Gwen sat up. She was alone in bed, but the spot beside her was still warm, and when she took in her surroundings she saw Ahsoka by the window, hopping on one foot and putting on her last boot. "An attack?"

            Ahsoka nodded. Gwen shot out of bed and started to dress. "Imperials?"

            "Looks like it," Ahsoka said, buckling her blaster belt. There was urgency in her movements, but she seemed so calm, almost unfazed by the tremble of artillery under their feet. This reaction always struck Gwen as strange, and she had to remind herself that Ahsoka had been in these kinds of situations many times before, during the Clone Wars - too many times, if you asked her. Gwen, however, was sick to her stomach with fear. "I need you to escort the queen to safety."

            "What?" Gwen was finishing up lacing her boots. "Where are you going?"

            "The younglings," Ahsoka said. "I have to find them..." _Before the Stormtroopers do_.

            Gwen started for the door. "I'll go with you-"

            "Gwen, no." Ahsoka grabbed her by the forearm--not painfully tight, but enough to get her attention and spin her around to face her. "The younglings are my responsibility, not yours. I'm counting on you to get Apailana out of here. Use the _Stellar Envoy_ if you have to." Gwen opened her mouth to protest again, but Ahsoka held her gaze. " _Please_."

            "Fine," Gwen said, throwing her hands up in the air. There was no arguing with her when she got like this. "But don't go and get yourself killed, or I'm going to be mad as Malachor at you!"

            Ahsoka hugged her. "I won't," she said. "Now, go. They'll break the defense grid soon."

            They stepped out into the hall together. The Queen's chambers and the refugee quarters - or wherever the Jedi were - were in opposite directions, and so Ahsoka and Gwen had to immediately part ways. They looked at each other once more - Gwen silently pleading with her eyes, Ahsoka only nodding solemnly, resolutely - and then Ahsoka was gone, sprinting around a curved turn of the corridor, disappearing into the fray.

            Dawn was breaking purple through the veranda windows and past the terraces beyond, but the usual quiet of morning was corrupted with near-constant booming that rattled the marble, leaving a faint veil of disturbed dust in the crisp morning air. Gwen heard the unmistakable sound of blaster fire - pew! pew! pew! - louder in the palace corridors, far away but not quite far enough. Sometimes Gwen spotted flashes of it, blistering behind Theed's distant walls, rising in smoke and sparks. Parts of the city were burning.

            Other members of the court were in the hall too, Naboo nobility in various states of undress, and there was a panic in the air, like flies that followed a herd of horses. No one even looked at Gwen as she passed them, although she was the only one running toward the palace's inner sanctum. Everyone else seemed to be heading in the direction of the shuttle bays on the lower levels, she reckoned. Luckily, Gwen had landed the Stellar Envoy was away from the other ships, on one of the Queen's priority docking platforms, or someone desperate enough might have gotten the idea to take it.

            Gwen found Apailana meeting with her advisors in the audience chamber. The Royal Guard posted at the doors crossed their staffs over the entrance on her approach, but the Queen called to them from inside, "Let the smuggler enter!" and so they did.

            She was standing upon the throne platform in only a shift, and her handmaidens were seeing to dressing her in heavy gown made of a silken, hunter green material that shone purple in the light, like a raptors plume. The collar was made of dark, stiff feathers, and her headdress was a sharp, twisted thing comprised of bent deadwood and thorns. Her advisors were visibly uncomfortable with watching her dress, but she showed no sign of herself being perturbed by it. Her makeup was already done; she was white-faced, her lips black, her eyes shadowed in deep purple and lined boldly. "Explain," she said, glaring down at them all, ferocity in her every gesture.

            "Your Highness," Captain Palpatis said, "perhaps we should delay this congregation until you are more decent--"

            "We've all been caught with our pants down this morning, Captain. You're no more embarrassed by my indecency than I am of your failure." Palpatis shrunk back. "Now, now did this happen?"

            Another advisor stepped forward. He was dressed in a different uniform, simpler. Gwen figured him for an engineer of some kind. ”Your highness,” he said, “last night, a small company of the enemy slipped into Theed unseen. They killed over a dozen of the Royal Guard on watch, and six of my men working in the LDS complex. It would appear that they… persuaded one to shut the system down before they executed him or her. That is how the Imperial fleet was able to enter our atmosphere and land shuttles on the ground without our detection.”

            “Is this so, Commander?” Palpatis nodded. “And what is the status of the conflict?”

            “Our security forces are engaging the Imperial battalion inside Theed’s walls at the southern tip and the Royal Plaza. We’ve taken heavy infantry and civilian losses. I’ve dispatched men in AAC-1 speeder tanks, but the enemy has brought heavy artillery, including TX fighter tanks. Our speeders simply can’t out-maneuver their missiles. Our particle cannon turrets are holding them back, but”--Palpatis cleared his throat--“reconnaissance reports that they’re positioning themselves to engage the grid console with a heavy assault, even as we speak.”

            “Will it hold, Captain?”

            Palpatis hesitated. “I do not think so, my queen.”

            Apailana pursed her lips. "I see."

            "Your Highness," Gwen said, speaking for the first time, "there's no way that Naboo's forces can win this fight. It’s hopeless. It's in the best interest of you and your people to withdraw immediately, before the Imperials break through the last of your defenses. My ship is waiting nearby, we can--"

            "You would have me abandon my palace, abandon the people of Theed? I will hear nothing of it." Gwen at once saw the childishness in Apailana, the petulance of her objection. Naboo royalty were always so young. "Black-hearted dictators have waged war on our people before, and we will be victorious, as we were then."

            Another explosion rocked the palace.

            "Queen Apailana, I agree with the smuggler"--Palpatis glanced at Gwen--"I agree with Captain Nahasi. Respectfully, Your Highness, you forget that even Queen Amidala withdrew during the Separatist invasion of Theed.” He raised his hands, as if in a position of surrender. “Sometimes the best possible action is retreat; surely you see the wisdom in this? Our N-1 StarFighters have engaged the cruisers blockading the planet. Imperial TIE-fighters are quick and many, but they lack the shielding and firepower that we do. I believe our fleet will be able to hold them off... for a time, but at this rate an orbital bombardment seems inevitable." Palapatis' voice deepened. "My queen, if we are to go, we must go now."

            Apailana was silent for a time, considering. Her dark eyes clouded with thought, focusing on everything and nothing at once. Her lips were a tight, black line. Outside, the blaster fire continued, drilling louder and louder into their ears, a kind of war-drum announcing the Empire's coming, insisting that they'd soon be there. Apailana's handmaidens finished dressing her with one final tug of a fastener, and it seemed as though in that moment the queen made her decision. Her black lips parted again. "Smuggler," she said, "you say your ship is nearby?"

            "Docking station 14, Your Highness."

            "And it is a fast vessel?"

            Gwen smiled and puffed like a fish. "Fastest in the galaxy," she said. "It could make it from here to Kessel in 12 parsecs."

            "What is it called?" Apailana stepped down off her dais and started toward Gwen, her handmaidens following in a flush and flap of multicolored silks. Her advisors bowed as she drew near.

            " _The Stellar Envoy_."

            "A fitting name," Queen Apailana said. "Captain Palapatis, have your finest guard who are not already engaged escort us down to docking bay 14. We will be leaving on the smuggler's"--she looked at Gwen impassively and rephrased her statement--"We will be withdrawing to the countryside on Captain Nahasi's ship, immediately."

            "Yes, My Queen," Palapatis said. "But what of the Jedi?"

            "Ahsoka went to find them," Gwen said. "She won't be long behind us." She stole a look through the arched windows at the lightening horizon, where - if you looked closely enough - you could still see the vague outline of the Star Destroyers hovering among the misty clouds, and now the faint flashes of cannon fire against the deepening blue sky. Another tremor went through the stone and marble beneath her, and something in Gwen's gut stabbed and twisted. _Hurry, Ahsoka.... Please_.

*^*^*

            Ahsoka sprinted down the corridor, her shoes squeaking on its polish. There was a courtyard and garden near the East Wing of the palace. Lined by short walls and hedges, it connected to the Royal Plaza and the main gates with a series of smaller, guarded gates, making it easier to move someone around without them being seen, like a coin under a peddler's cup. That was where Ahsoka had known smuggled refugees to be taken before, and it was her best guess as to where the younglings had been taken, now. It was also damn near on the other side of the palace, and she was drenched in sweat by the time she made it there.

            The courtyard appeared abandoned at first glance. Smoke left a gray haze over the flowers and greenery, and there were doming plumes of it just beyond the hedges. Webbed cracks ran through the granite stones, Ahsoka assumed from the artillery tremors. She was about to loose an exasperated sigh when she heard voices around the bend, not too far away. She followed them.

            There was a small crowd at one of the inner gates that led toward the Royal Plaza, toward the smoke. The guards had raised their voices high enough to be heard above the blasters, but the person who was speaking to them couldn't have been using an octave much higher than a whisper. They were wearing brown, hooded robes, as were the two on either side of them, and simple tunics beneath. Ahsoka needed only one guess to recognize who they were.

            When Ahsoka drew nearer, someone to the left shouted her name, and she was immediately rushed by a small, familiar Rodian. "Hello, Ganodi," Ahsoka said. Katooni was next to join in the hug, coming out from the shrubbery where they were all staying hidden, and Ahsoka smiled and said hello to her, too. The boys hesitated - Zaat, Petra, and Byph - but only for a moment before they piled in next to the girls. The wookie boy was last, and he stomped his hairy foot and gave a little roar. "There's room, Gungi," Ahsoka said, giggling. "C'mon, everyone, make room for Gungi," and they all did.

            Zaat looked up at her. "You smell much better now, Ahsoka."

            Ahsoka laughed. "So do you," she said. "All of you do."

            "Gungi doesn't," Petra said, scrunching up his nose.

            "Even Gungi," Ahsoka said, ruffling the wookie's hair. He had buried his face in Ahsoka's pants, but she could hear him purring gently.

            "Pardon the intrusion," the shortest of the three Jedi said. Her brown eyes regarded Ahsoka from the round, furry face of an Ewok. "It is good to see you again, General Tano. Although, I wish it were under better circumstances."

            "As do I, Master Deeku," Ahsoka said, giving her a small bow at the waist. She then showed the other two Jedi a similar respect. "Master Sagva"--she said to the tall, red-skinned Twi'lek, whose tentacle was coiled protectively around his throat--"Master Skush," she said, and bowed to the Gungan Jedi, who bowed in return, her eyeballs blinking lidlessly. "Thank you for looking after the younglings, and it’s just ‘Ahsoka’, now."

            "Wee'sa pleasure," Skush said. “And you’sa always a General to mee’sa.”

            "General Tano," Sagva said, and then corrected himself: "Ahsoka, we must hurry. I sense the Imperial forces are very near to breaking through the palace defenses."

            Deeku's hairs bristled. "I would agree," she said.

            "I have a shuttle waiting for us on the other side of the plaza," Ahsoka said. "It's docked on one of the queen's private hangars. If we hurry, we can backtrack through the palace and be there before the Imperials are able to storm the gates."

            "With all due respect, Ahsoka," Sagva said, "the fastest route to the other side of the plaza is, in my estimation, through the plaza itself." He pointed to the courtyard gates, where the guards still stood, looking more nervous by the minute.

            Ahsoka grimaced. Sagva was right, of course, but so was Deeku; the fighter tanks would likely break through the main gates at any moment. Ahsoka could hear their cannons booming, just beyond the hedges and the walls. "We'll have to move quickly," she said. "If we see the enemy, I don't want you to engage. It's a full retreat, agreed?" The three masters nodded, as did the younglings, who somehow seemed even more solemn. "Where's Ray?"

            "The strange-looking droid with an attitude?" Sagva asked. "He's powered down at the guard-post. Sentries caught him trying to remotely hack the defense grid early this morning, before the attack. He shouldn't be much worse for wear."

            "Good, we'll pick him up on the way," Ahsoka said, and started to walk. The others followed, their long robes swooshing behind them. The two guards looked at each other wearingly as they approached, and stepped out of their posts to block the Jedi's pass. "Master Skush, would you do the honors?"

            "It be mee'sa mui honor," she said, stepping ahead of the group just in time to be met with a sharp call from one of the guards for them to get back. Skush waved her hand and did not stop. "You'sa be letting we'sa pass," she said, and walked right on through.

            The guards lowered their staffs and scratched their heads, looking at each other for guidance. "We, uh... sa, be letting you... sa, uh..."

            Ahsoka popped her head into the stucco booth mounted at the gate and found Ray lying at the top of a bin of other electronics. It only took her a moment to reset his battery matrix and, when she did, he powered back on in a rush of life. "--understand, my scanners are picking up vessels at less than 200kilometers! Your planetary LDS must be malfunctioning! I--" his red eye rolled up and met Ahsoka's brown ones. "Oh, it's you."

            "Sorry, buddy," Ahsoka said. "You were right, though."

            "Of course I was," he said, taking to the air again.

            "Can you patch my commlink with Gwen?"

            There was a whirring noise, and then Ray said, "Done."

            "Thanks," Ahsoka said, tapping the receiver in her ear to make sure it was online. "We're heading through the Royal Plaza back to The Stellar Envoy and getting out of here."

            "It’s about time," Ray grumbled. "We should never have come in the first place."

            "Keep low and stay off Imperial scanners, but scout ahead for us, would you? Relay any reconnaissance." Ray took off, floating up and away at a steady pace, his main engines whirring. Ahsoka and the others continued walking toward the plaza, following the hedges. Their path was marked by the shadow of the droid in the sky, bobbing along on the concrete like a child's ball.

            Ahsoka tapped her earpiece again, "Gwen, you there?"

            " _I'm here_ ," Gwen said. " _It's good to hear your voice!_ "

            "Yours too," she said. "What's your status?"

            " _I'm with Apailana and her Royal Guard_ ," Gwen said. Ahsoka could hear a commotion on the commlink; dozens, maybe hundreds of feet, and shouting. " _We're in one of the descending corridors, heading to the Envoy, but there's a hold-up at the stairs_."

            Ahsoka picked up Apailana's voice in the background, loud and regal, _Ladies, Noblemen, please! Panic will do nothing, but_ \--"Gwen, we don't have time for this. Can you take another route through the palace? How close are you to the courtyard?"

            Gwen said, "Captain, is there another way around?" There was a moment of muttering, and then: " _Ahsoka, Palapatis says there's a courtyard stairwell entrance. It should be deserted, but he cautions against going through the Royal Plaza_."

            "Good," Ahsoka said. "We're heading through the courtyard into the plaza, now. We'll rendezvous there, then cut through to the Eastern side of the palace and back up to the Envoy."

            " _Ahsoka, isn't this dangerous? The queen--_ "

            "Any more dangerous then leaving her behind?"

            " _Alright_ ," Gwen said. " _I'll see you in ten_."

            "I can't wait, hon. Ahsoka out."

            The hedge path was a long, winding walkway that coiled itself around the palace exterior, knotting off into concrete meadows for gardens and shrines. Ahsoka ran point, with Sagva and Skush directly behind her. The younglings were cushioned in the middle, some struggling harder to keep up than others--Byph, for example. Ithorians were not much of runners. Master Deeku brought up the rear, mostly because her furry legs were nearly too short to keep their pace at all. "General--Uh, Ahsoka, we really must hurry. I sense we haven't much time to pass through, unprovoked."

            " _The talking teddy bear is right_ ," Ray-1 said in her comm. " _A squad of TX fighter tanks are laying down heavy artillery fire on the defense grid._ " Ahsoka could hear them, a steady drumming just behind the hedges, a little farther north of their position. " _It is a tactical ruse, however. My scans indicate a small platoon of clones climbing the grid itself. They will very likely dismantle it from the inside_."

            "Ray, how long!?"

            " _Hard to say, exactly_ \--" _PHEEEEEE-PLOOOOM_. The sound came from behind the wall, a red burst and a sucking in of light before the flash of white-hot fire and black smoke. An implosion before an explosion. _Thermo nukes_ , Ahsoka thought. A mushroom cloud plumed behind the hedges, almost as if it were leading their way. " _Actually, I can say with some exactness: Not long_."

            "We'sa should be going back," Skush said. "Dees berry bad."

            Ahsoka shook her head. "No, we have to keep going," she said. "It will take them a while to bring their full force through the gate. Royal Security will head them off. We still have time."

            "I concur," Sagva said. "Going back will bring only failure."

            Deeku said only, "I have a bad feeling about this."

            They sprinted around one last curve and the path widened out into the Royal Plaza ahead. They could see the marble statues along the perimeter of it, ancient Naboo royalty standing watch over Theed. One of them looked like Queen Amidala, Ahsoka thought, smaller in stature than the other monuments, but more elegantly dressed, and with a singular kindness to her face. Ahsoka didn't remember hearing tell of them ever constructing one. Then again, Ahsoka hadn't been able to attend Padme's funeral. _Now isn't the time for these thoughts_ , Ahsoka told herself.

            A formation of security forces awaited the breach in the plaza, some standing behind cover, some stooped in line with the main gate. It was less than she expected there to be, but it would have to do, at least until they were able to—

            "Ahsoka!" Gwen bounded down a small staircase set into the side of the palace, shadowed, and almost hidden behind shrubbery. Behind her came Captain Palapatis and a contingent of the Queen's personal guard, all rushing out into the courtyard to meet them. "Funny bumping into you," Gwen said, grinning. "Come to Imperial invasions often?"

            Apailana emerged from the darkened hole last, dressed more like a ferocious bird of prey than a queen. "General Tano," she said, very seriously. "I thank you for your continued loyalty and support."

            "Thank me after we get out of here," Ahsoka said. "Let's go!"

            They started moving again, an even bigger and more ungainly group than they had been separately, with Ahsoka still running at the forefront. They had only crossed a quarter of the plaza when there was a series of rapid booms, these smaller, but closer. Then the main gate--a massive, arched piece of heavy Naboo wood--fell forward and crumbled in a cloud of ash and cinders. The coordinated explosions rattled them, brought them to a halt, and then the blaster fire that sizzled through the smoke made them drop for cover.

            "Malachor!" Ahsoka cursed. "Stay low, but keep moving!"

            Apailana had sunk behind the same half-pillar that Ahsoka had, her back pressed against it. A gloved hand reached inside her gown and produced a blaster pistol from its layers. "I can not leave these men to die," she said, rising up to take aim on her elbows and fire. Two Stormtroopers sparked and dropped in the smoke.

            Ahsoka shouted at her, "Apailana, we don't have time for this!"

            The queen's eyes were onyx. "All of us," she said. "Or none."

            Ahsoka made a noise that was somewhere between a groan and a growl. "Fine!" She carefully stuck her head out from behind cover so the others could see that she was talking to them. "Deeku, protect the younglings. Sagva, Skush, support the Royal Guard. Hold these troopers back. Gwen, keep moving. Get to the Envoy."

            "What!?" Gwen made a face as if to say, _Are you crazy!?_ "Even if I get there, how are you all supposed to board once I do!?"

            "We'll figure that part out later," Ahsoka said. "I trust you... now, go!" Ahsoka, Apailana, Captain Palapatis and his guard all broke cover at once, laying down a suppressing fire. Gwen leapt up and ran across the plaza, across the battlefield. Sparks exploded all around her, flames flaring up every few feet. Ahsoka went cold. _She's not going to make it..._

            A trooper shouted, "Jedi!" and Ahsoka looked to see Master Skush and Sagva pressing forward, their lightsabers - both green - flashed in the air, swiping away enemy blaster bolts. The Imperial's main attack focused on them now, instead. Ahsoka turned and spotted Gwen just as she safely disappeared around the curve on the West Side of the Royal Plaza, into the courtyard that would lead her up and into the Queen's hangar bay. _Please hurry_ , Ahsoka thought.

*^*^*

            Gwen ran through the courtyard, through the smoke, away from the thundering sounds of blaster fire and artillery. The Royal Palace's West Side was deserted; there weren't even any guards left at the connecting gate posts to stop her, and she figured there would be equally few in the hangar bay. Without anyone to guide her, Gwen was counting on the palace architecture being symmetrical. Her eyes scanned the walls while she ran, searching for a dark, arched entrance; a West Courtyard stairwell, as there had been on the East side of the palace. She found one that was hidden behind a shrub that had begun flowering purple bulbs, and scratched herself on its thorns on the way through.

            Up the stairs and into the main corridor, Gwen found herself alone in a palace of ghosts. Smoke hung heavy in the air, refracting the sunlight from the veranda windows. It was desolately quiet, save for the sounds of the battle below, echoing hollowly in the marble halls. It felt like she was in a dream, something just on the brink of being a nightmare, but still vague with the haze of sleep. She ran, her footfalls adding to the echoes.

            Gwen was in Corridor A, the Noble Corridor, as it was called. It spiraled up and around the palace exterior, giving the best view of the city of Theed beyond – on good days, anyway. It also had the most convenient access to amenities, like the royal suites where Ahsoka and she had been staying, or private courtyard entrances, or – and this was most important to Gwen – isolated hangar bays. There was a locked door blocking Gwen’s path to Hangar Bay 2, and first Gwen tried using the security console next to it. She pulled up entry logs and could see that the mechanics had finished their work on the ship, just as Palapatis had promised, and she pumped her fist in gratitude. The door would still not open, however, and Gwen tried bypassing the security protocols, muttering, “I wish Ray was here right about now.” When that failed, she simply pulled out her pistol and blasted it. The console sparked out and then went dark. That felt better, anyway. That’s how she was used to opening doors.

            There was a hydraulic hiss, and the door slid up and opened for her. On the other side, there was the long stretch of walkway that connected the circular landing pad to the palace. _The Stellar Envoy_ sat perched on it, sleeping undisturbed above the unrest below. It was caught in a beam of sunlight that made its battered hull gleam just a little, and Gwen almost teared up at the sight of it. “Alright, baby,” she said, running toward it. The loading ramp was already down, as though _The_ _Envoy_ were waiting for her. “Let’s get Ahsoka and get out of here!”

            A blaster bolt went off at her feet. “Not so fast,” she heard a voice say, amplified by some speaker system. There was a _whoosh_ of air, and Gwen turned to see a small ship rising up from below the landing pad. It was a Firespray-31 patrol and attack craft, but Gwen could already tell that it had been customized into some kind of metal monstrosity. The engines didn’t oscillate correctly, not how that class of engine should have, anyway. Everything about the ship stunk of a bounty hunter. “I don’t remember giving you permission to take off, smuggler,” the voice said. It sounded young, even amplified as it was. Gwen’s hand tightened on her blaster’s grip.

            “Don’t even think about it.”

            Gwen made a run for it.

*^*^*

            The smoke was clearing, revealing a push from the troopers to move through the open gate, but they were bottlenecked. Queen Apailana shouted commands at the Royal Security, and blaster fire held the Imperials at bay. Master Skush, between deflecting bolts, would lift her hand and send them sprawling back, tumbling over each other. Sagva moved around the field, unpinning any guard taking too much fire. Ahsoka was starting to think they had the tactical advantage, until a artillery shell from Theed rocked the defensive wall, and a TX Fighter Tank rolled through the debris into the plaza. More troopers swarmed out of the hole around it.

            Apailana was on her feet before Ahsoka could stop her, running for cover closer to the breach. "To me, to me!" Captain Palapatis and her guard followed. "Get this machination off my lawn!"

            Captain Palapatis shouted, "For Naboo! For the queen!" and then he charged the tank with a live grenade blinking in his hand. His men followed, firing blasters, swinging staffs. They struck hard and fast, but the tank's cannons were too heavy; cover was reduced to rubble in moments, and a lifeless Palapatis was blown away in a downpour of rock and gravel. His body landed hard, bounced, and smoked. His men did not stand much longer.

            "Ahsoka," Master Deeku said, breaking her shocked daze, "now might be a good time for... a more elegant kind of weapon."

            It felt like it had been a long, long time in a galaxy far, far away since she'd last needed one, but Master Deeku was right, she couldn't hide anymore. Too much depended on her.

            Ahsoka pressed a finger to her comm. "Ray, are you online?" _I am_. "Good," she said. "RPG the package, on me." And then she was up running, racing toward the queen. Blaster bolts sizzled all around her. Up above the battlefield, Ray-1 opened a cannon barrel on his back, calculated trajectory, and fired. Something loosed from him, propelled by fire, smoking. It arched high in the air, the propellant end puttering out and breaking away, but the package spiraling down toward the field, toward the tank, where Ahsoka - her eyes now closed - pushed off on a piece of rubble, flipped, caught it in midair, and ignited her lightsaber. Hot, blue light pulsed in her hands. _PHOOOOOOOOOM. PHOOOOOOOOOM_. She landed effortlessly behind the tank's cannon and sliced it clean off. “Ray,” Ahsoka said, “find Gwen.”

            “Get the Jedi!” The Imperials surrounding the tank fired their blasters at her, but those were immediately deflected, two or three bolts taking down the very troopers who had shot them. The rest were easily toppled with a push from the force, giving Ahsoka plenty of time to drag her lightsaber through the tank's roof and rip out its pilot. He was discarded like space trash.

*^*^*

           

            Blaster fire exploded behind Gwen at every step. She was halfway down the walkway, making a B-Line for _The Stellar Envoy_ ’s loading ramp. Her only hope was that she could get inside and get the shields up before that attack craft did too much damage to the outer hull. Whoever was piloting the craft must have seen that plan coming. They stopped firing at her and fired at the loading ramp instead, just as she neared it. Gwen was blown back and landed hard on her back. Her first thought after she shook off the ringing in her skull was to check _The Envoy_. The ramp was singed, but not much worse for wear. “I told you,” the voice said. “Not so fast.”

            “ _What a mess you humans make. I’ll need a moment to resolve_.”

            Gwen sat up slowly, coming to a crouch. “Drop your blaster,” the voice said. She did, letting it clatter on the walkway beside her. “Now put your hands behind your head and lay down on your stomach.” She did this, too. Her hands inched up to her head. Her foot slid back and she lowered her weight, pound by pound, until she was lying flat. “It doesn’t matter how long you stall, smuggler. You’re about to be the emperor’s property. For the right price, that is.”

            Gwen’s head was cocked to the side on the walkway surface, but she could see the attack craft coming in sideways, pointing its laser cannons away from her to do so. There was a hatch on the side that she assumed the bounty hunter meant to collect her from. “Stay very still,” the voice told her over the speakers. Gwen knew he could swivel the ship around faster than she would be able to get up. Firespray crafts were fast out of the factory, and this one had been heavily modded and was probably even faster. Her only chance was…

            “ _Almost completed_ ,” Ray said over the comm. Gwen could see him now, hovering near the rear of the bounty hunter’s ship. An instrument of his was inserted into one of the attack craft’s access panels, and Gwen saw it whirring and blinking. “ _I’m going to deactivate his secondary systems. It won’t last long, but it should give you the time you require_.” Ray sounded all too pleased with himself, and Gwen rued thanking him for it later. “ _Be ready,_ mother.” That settled it. He only ever called her mother when he was feeling particularly haughty.

            The Firespray’s hatch slid open just in time for Gwen to watch all the lights on the ship’s interior suddenly go dark, replaced with the red glow of the backup power unit. She heard the _GOOOOOooooooom_ of everything being powered down, and even the thrusters dimmed, and the ship lost a few feet of altitude. “Malachor!” the voice said over the speaker system. “What have you—“ and then that too lost power, petered out into nothing but static and then silence. Gwen rolled, grabbed her blaster, popped off three shots into the open hatch – singeing something, and sending sparks flying in the cockpit – and then she was up and running.

            Gwen made it to _The Stellar Envoy_ and closed the loading ramp just as the attack craft’s secondary systems started coming back online, and it roared to life again – almost literally, considering the bounty hunter’s obscenities over the PA system. As the ramp closed, Gwen saw Ray shooting past the Firespray, heading toward _The Envoy_ , when the bounty hunter shouted, “Oh, no you don’t!” Ray halted in midair, twisting for a moment, and then was sucked back, landing hard against the magnetic junk collector on the Firespray’s bow. Gwen watched horrified as Ray slammed into the craft with a metal _CLANK_ and surged with electricity, screaming a moment before finally, mercifully deactivating. “I’m not going home empty handed, smuggler!” The ramp was closed, but Gwen felt blaster fire rock _The Envoy_. There was no time to mourn.

            Gwen raced around the inner corridor to the cockpit, hopping into the pilot seat and flipping on all the flight controls. Not having a co-pilot to reach the toggles on the switchboard slowed her down, and _The Stellar Envoy_ rumbled again. Warning lights went off on the interior, blaring, telling the passengers that the ship was under fire. “I know, I know,” Gwen said, almost absentminded, focused more on getting _The Envoy_ up into the air. The thrusters fired on, and the ship lifted, rotating clockwise to face the attack craft. Gwen could see the bounty hunter through the front viewfinder, now. He couldn’t have been much older than fourteen. He fired at her again. “Alright, kid,” Gwen said, talking mostly to herself, “let’s see how you fly.”

            _The Envoy_ rocketed up, slicing just overhead of the bounty hunter’s ship. He gave chase, tearing off after her. Gwen didn’t have a co-pilot to man _The Envoy’s_ turrets, which left her mostly vulnerable. This left her no choice but to do something stupid. She flew in a corkscrew pattern, up into the sky. It slowed her ascent, but that was on purpose – all part of her very, very bad plan. The Firespray flew in a straight line; it was fast, and its trajectory kept it biting her ankles, just where she wanted it.

            When she’d reached a high enough peak, Gwen revved up the thrusters, giving herself a little space between both ships, then yanked the throttle into full stop just long enough to reengage the reverse thrusters only, sending the back-end of the ship straight down. The stern slammed into the side of the Firespray, a giant metal hand swatting a annoying insect, sending it tumbling off into the distance, and then Gwen reignited the main thrusters, using the momentum of the crash to push her hard east, spinning like an arrow.

            “I’m coming Ahsoka,” she said, sinking the thrusters into the dashboard.

*^*^*

            There was a new rush of troopers pouring through the gate and the breaches in the plaza wall. Ahsoka backed away from them slowly, deflecting bolts with her saber. Her back found and pressed against Apailana's, who was firing her pistol in another direction. On both ends of the field, troopers were dropping in a shower of sparks. "It is an honor fighting by your side, Master Jedi," Apailana said. She squeezed her trigger and another trooper fell near the perimeter.

            "I'm no master," Ahsoka said, "and I'm definitely no Jedi." Her lightsaber spun in her hands - _phoom, phoom, phoom, phoom_ \- and batted four blaster bolts away in rapid succession.

            "You could have fooled me," Apailana said, and fired again.

            A shadow passed overhead, stretching long and black. Ahsoka thought that it was Gwen at first, coming in for a tight landing or a pickup with The Stellar Envoy, some desperately magnificent piloting maneuver that only Gwen could pull off, but the shadow was too small and oddly shaped, winged and finned. It passed over them until the ship itself flew into Ahsoka's field of vision, and she saw what it really was: A lambda-class shuttle, probably from one of the cruisers in orbit, which meant that the Naboo pilots had already lost their dogfight with the Empire's TIE-fighters.

            Ahsoka felt queasy. Something wasn't right, something felt... familiar, but twisted and wrong, like a memory that had been razed to the ground.

            The shuttle turned and folded its wings in, landing just outside the plaza. Ahsoka searched her feelings, trying to understand what the spiders crawling inside her skull were. The battle was all but lost, their fate teetering on a precipice, but that wasn't it. It wasn't this battle, not their fate... it was a defeat from long ago, a fate that was already decided. Ahsoka was lost in her own feelings. Maybe if she had been more present, she might have sensed the sniper.

            "General Tano, we will need to find different cover if we--"

            There was a pop, like a stone skipping on stone. Apailana stopped speaking in mid-command. Ahsoka's eyes widened, sensing what had just happened, but all too late to stop it. Ahsoka spun around, her lightsaber retracting, and caught the Queen's body as it fell backward. "No, no, no..." There was a maw burned into the Queen's chest, the fabric of her dress singed around it. Apailana's eyes had lost their ferocity, now lifeless. "No... No... No..."

            "Target is down," someone shouted across the battlefield. Someone else agreed, "Target is down." Just like that, the fighting seemed to stop. It was a kind of ceasefire born of shock of defeat or pleasure in victory. Everyone understood that it was over. Queen Apailana was dead. The Empire had won, and Naboo was lost.

            Ahsoka had tears in her eyes when she saw his black shape come through the gate. He stopped to survey the battlefield, breathing loudly, and although she could not see his expression through the polished of his skull-like helmet, Ahsoka could feel the cold detachment coming off him in waves. "Leave no one alive," he said, his voice booming. "Especially the Jedi scum."

            Ahsoka felt fury. Her thumb moved to press the ignition on her lightsaber, but the lightsaber was suddenly gone. It had been torn from her grasp, flying across a hundred feet of smoking debris and corpses, landing unceremoniously in Vader's black, gloved hand. He seemed to study it for a moment, and she felt his dispassion break. "Except that one," he said, pointing to her. "Bring that one to me." With that he turned sharply and left, his cape swishing.

            Masters Deeku, Sagva, and Skush had backed away from the man in the black helmet, pressing their backs to the younglings in the corner of the courtyard. A circle of troopers tightened on them, like a noose. “RUN,” Ahsoka screamed. She tried running herself, but another group of troopers had grabbed her, kicking and flailing. She stomped on their feet and bit one of their arms, but it they were too heavily armored. “KATOONI… BYPH…” she was just shouting their names, now. Ahsoka could see the younglings looking at her, then looking at each other, and as the troopers tightened even further, she saw them silently agree to stand bravely, like Jedi. The five of them ignited their lightsabers - the same ones that Ahsoka had helped them construct, all those years ago – and then the circle of troopers blocked her view totally, and she saw them open fire. Ahsoka’s eyes were bleary with tears. “NOOOoooooo!”

            Ahsoka’s body went limp. The troopers that were holding her were practically dragging her now. “On yer feet, Jedi,” one of them said, sounding fed up with her resistance. “Lord Vader wants you—“there was an abrupt and massive _WHOOSH_ behind her _,_ and Ahsoka heard the exhale of hydraulics before the _pewpew_ of someone opening fire on the troopers holding her.

            Ahsoka spun around, and there was _The Stellar Envoy_ , hovering fifteen feet off the ground, looking somewhat worse for wear. The loading ramp was lowered, and Gwen was standing at the top of it, blaster in hand, hair wind-swept and unruly. “Ahsoka,” she shouted down to her over the sound of the engines, “let’s go, c’mon, get in!” Ahsoka leapt, using the force to drive her higher, and she landed practically in Gwen’s arms. The loading ramp closed, and Gwen held her tight, but only for a moment. “We have to go.”

*^*^*

            Commander Tosch stood on the deck of the Imperial Cruiser orbiting Naboo, his hands neatly folded behind his back. He had been in command of that particular vessel during the battle, but now the battle had been won, and they had the dreary duty of blockading the planet. There had not been a ship on their scanners for quite some time, and Commander Tosch had assumed that the 501st had simply not let anyone survive on the planet surface long enough to board one, as was usually the case. He was wrong, however. At approximately 07:00 hours, one of the scanner technicians on the deck alerted him to a ship heading off-world. It was a YT-1300 freighter. “Probably just traders trying to escape the siege,” Tosch said. “Fire at will.”

_DO NOT FIRE UPON THAT SHIP –_

            “Delay that order,” Tosch said, but it was too late. The order having already been given, the weapons technicians flipped what switches were needed, and the cruiser fired its main cannons. The red beams speared off into space, but the freighter was improbably fast, and the attack only grazed its hull; probably causing some discomfort to the passengers, shaking them up, but no major damage to the vessel was made. Tosch breathed a sigh of relief… it was his last.

            Commander Tosch began to choke. Slowly, at first, making gagging noises and rasping, but then he went totally silent. His face turned red, then purple, then blue. His feet lifted entirely off the ground, and he floated on the desk, clawing at his own throat. Everyone on deck watched him struggle for what seemed to them like an eternity, saying nothing, doing nothing. Then he went still, hanging in the air slack, lifeless. His body crumbled back down to the metal planks, where he would lay until the med-unit would come and drag him away, to be released into space.

            In the distance, the freighter’s thrusters burned blue and then were gone.


End file.
